Surgical tent or dilator



(No Model.)

T. G. KNIGHT.

SURGICAL TENT 0R DILATOR:

No. 488,929. Patented 0011.21, 1890.

IIVVENTOR:

ATTORNEYS ms NORRIS Pirzns co., woYo-Lrmm, msmuumu, n. c.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

THOMAS G. KNIGHT, OF ROOKVILLE CENTRE, NEWV YORK.

SURGICAL TENT OR DILATOR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 438,929, dated October 21, 1890.

Application filed June 19, 1890. Serial No. 355,976. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, THOMAS G. KNIGHT, of Rockville Centre, in the county of Queens and State of New York, have invented a new and Improved Dilator or Tent, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

The object of the invention is to provide a new and improved dilator or tent specially designed for use on brood-mares and other animals, and adapted to be easily placed and securely retained for a short period in the womb of the animal.

The invention consists of an expanding plug having an exterior layer of an elastic material.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forminga part of this specification, in which similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the figures.

Figure 1 is a side elevation of the improvement with parts broken away, and Fig. 2 is a like View of a modified form of the same.

The dilator or tent is formed of a piece of soft wood or other cellular material preferably compressed by suitable means into a small plug A, rounded off at one end B, and provided at its other end with a string 0 for withdrawing the plug after use.

In order to retain the dilator or tent in place when inserted in the neck of the womb, the plug A is covered with a layer D of an elastic material-such as sponge, cloth, and other similar material-which expands with the plug, and by its roughened surface engaging the wall of the neck of the womb readily retains the dilator or tent in place. The

layer D may cover the plug A partly, as shown in Fig. 1, or wholly, as illustrated in Fig. 2.

In using the tent or dilator it is inserted with the pointed end forward into the mouth of the womb, and then gently pushed inward until nearly the entire tent is within the neck. The tent is left therein, say, for six to eight hours, with the string 0 extending through the vagina to the outside. The liquid contained in the womb and surrounding the same is sucked up and passes into the cells of the plug A, thereby slowly expanding the same to several times its original size, a displacement being prevented by the layer D firmly adhering to the inner wall of the neck.

I have found by experiments that poplar, elm, tupelo, and similar trees furnish plugs well adapted for the purpose. Sea-tang compressed into the desired form and covered, as above mentioned, will also well answer the purpose.

I am aware that tents of sponge have been used by the medical profession on human beings; and I do not claim the same broadly.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent- A new article of manufacture comprising a plug made of an expanding cellular material and an exterior layer of an elastic material held on the said plug, substantially as shown and described.

THOMAS G. KNIGHT.

Witnesses:

THEO. G. HOSTER, C. SEDGWICK. 

